Behind the bodybuilding, acting, real estate investing, and politician is Arnold, The Master Salesman, who has a herculean level of ambition, willingness to take risk and defy the odds. Arnold’s drive and hunger is impressive and this story has really boosted my admiration for him. Happiness can be found in the journey and Arnold demonstrated numerous transformation journey’s and bets he took on himself and others. Some of the 10 principles which stood out the most to me where the importance of putting in the reps; practice, to not let pride get in the way, to take care of your body and mind and always stay hungry.

A powerful, deep and revealing philosophical narrative around, “what is the meaning of life” and whether having a differing meaning from the average consensus of society forfeits one’s own humanity. The stranger also takes a look at how extreme indifference in the world and lack of purpose can make one complacent to the whims and motivations of others, when you have a personal void that is easy to fill externally. I thought deeply about how effortless emotional control or however you categorize it as demonstrated by the protagonist was seen as something only a monster was capable of and not a human, but yet how extreme emotional expressions often create the most pain.

Being Mortal is a powerful, eye-opening and empathetically written book about how we struggle to cope with the constraints of our biology, with the limits set by genes and cells and flesh and bone. We aren’t are properly equipped and prepped to handle end of life decides for ourselves or loved ones. Medical Science has progressed tremendously to expand our life span, but the quality of our lives still diminish dramatically; keeping the body alive and destroying other things in the process. The book talks about alternative methods of care and how we can better manage life and think about living and dying on our own terms.

Beautifully written poems with that describe and illustrate being present with nature and oneself. Mary’s words guides your heart to take bold yet organic action, falling into love and not planning for it, discovering your inner courage and not cowardly denying your own natural expressions. To take risks is to explore the unknown, open our eyes and heart, live authentically, creating our own space and to bask in the beauty of the moments we live in.

I was completely drawn into the world Lois Lowry wrote, detailing the story of Jonas, the community he lived in and the Giver. The giver was a somewhat dystopian look into a society authoritatively constructed to remove danger’s from it’s citizen’s lives. That meant loosing the freedom of choice, as those in power believed that those choices would be wrong so they would make them on your behalf, and design your life for you. It is a congruent society to the extreme, filled with “sameness” that would remove indiviudality and contruct well defined roles and responsibilties to contribute back into the community. The elder’s of the society, however, realized that there are some things worth protecting that they themselves cannot burden, the memories of the past, and the wisdom and all the pain they come with. Commentary on a world without danger or painFreedom of choiceCongruency to the extremeA limited range of emotions squeezes the boundary of the world you perceive

Basic and fundamental principles around honest communication with inspiration from classical philosophies around ego-awareness and detachment. Campell helps the reader develop trust and confidence in themselves to communicate more authentically with awareness around control patterns that hinder vulnerable, deep and authentic connections from being developed. I found the self-assessment questions helpful as well as the end of chapter summaries, but the case studies were drawn out and I felt the book lacked depth and focus.

A well-researched guide to achieving your physical and performance goals through smarter eating and supplementation. Kleiner does a deep dive into the macro and micronutrients involved in building, repairing, and maximizing muscle mass and performance, in addition to going over most of the major supplements, including their benefits, effectiveness, downsides and macronutrient combinations and ideal recommended intact to get the most out of them in a safe and healthy manner. My nutrition IQ defitnely increased reading this book and it can be used as a reference with pragmatic application for recommended supplements and meal plans provided in the book.

An exploration of various essays about astronomy, physics, earth and space sciences as well as discourse on how media portrays physics and where to draw the line between creative freedom and overly distorted representation of science. If you have decent exposure to physics and astronomy, some of the essays may seem repetitive, and this book is better geared as introductory exposure to these topics. Neil goes over the history of some of the major discoveries in astronomy and how our view of the universe and our place in it has evolved over time. I enjoyed some of the later chapters which were some of his stronger opinions on science and religion and the media.

Willa Wonka meet’s the Matrix, is a good world colliding analogy to describe Ready Player One, set in a dystopian world where people escape into the massively popular virtual utopia called ‘OASIS’. The story follows Wade Watts, whose world resolves around the OASIS and finding the egg hidden in the game by it’s creator James Halliday, winning his fortune of 240 billion dollars. This story had amazing world building around 80’s games, music, movies and other pop culture and I felt a part of Wade’s journey, there’s a lot of twists and the story felt very nostalgic to my gamer days when I was younger. It was a clever and smart story, but not too novel. Still it was an entertaining read.

The story follows the conflicts humanity faces towards three new intelligent species, one which they have quarantined on a single plant, one whose specifies was destroyed in the battle with humans, expect one remaining queen which carries the future of its species, and the humans still believe it to be dead. The other species is an artificial intelligence, who few know about but has enabled the human species to travel across the galaxy. Xenocide captures the feature of humans and their reaction to destroy as well as how religious faith can create both stability and instability. The humans in this universe fear any other potentially species and are threatening another Xenocide to protect themselves.

A painfully beautiful essay by James Baldwin examining the consequences of racial injustice and a philosophical view of pain, religion and the concept of race. He gives a powerful reminder, “Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity”, and a thoughts on pain, “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”. Reading this felt like a meditative exercise on the realities we face and have ignored due to the illusion of progress.

Doesn’t give you the kinda excitement you’ll get from the earlier Ender/Bean series books. The story follows Bean and Petra after the events of kinapping of Battle School Children to led the wars back on earth. There is a romance between Bean and Petra, that reads very bland and the battle strategies in this book are a big step down from Shadow of the Hedgemon.

If you’re looking for an applied example of Never Eat Alone combined with a more aggressive version of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Weintraub’s story shows a lively personality built for hollywood and cultivating the power of relationships in business and life. I enjoyed Jerry’s early year rising stories a little more than the post Elvis era in the book. Jerry has a hustler’s spirit and other entrepreneurs and sales folks can learn from his story.

A well organized introduction to day trading for beginners, with a detailed overview and deep dive into effective trading tools, strategies and resources applying knowledge of candlesticks patterns backed with effective tools and data sources to find trading opportunities. Andrew goes of the common mistakes that beginner traders make and what the pros usually get fight. At the core of it, is doing effective planning and research, not trading emotionally and having solid self-awareness to determine which trades strategies work well with your personality and setup.

Stories about the origins and resolutions to some of the worst plagues in human history. Although, medical advancements had a lot of do with some of the breakthroughs, simple sanitary and cultural changes had even bigger effects and it was interesting to read how people lived back then and how difficult they were to persuade on matters that are common sense to us today to protect our health.

The story of a man, incable of revealing his true self to others, and find himself lost in vices until he withers away to a point where he feels as if he’s disqualified from being a human being. He captures his story in the form of four notebooks, his journals that explores his unhappiness and lose of time. No longer Human, explores loneliness, depression, sadness and ones place in society through the story of Osamu.

Nice introductory course on mindfulness and meditation. Can be replayed for guided meditation sessions on audible. I gained some awareness on other situations in my life where I should be more mindful like during walks or eating.

One common reason our ideas don’t connect to the potential audience is due to the problem of the “Curse of Knowledge” where we communicate an idea where we have all the insider and domain knowledge, and we mistakenly assume the person on the other side has context and prior information into what you’re are talking about. Made to stick aims to help you structure and communicate ideas that almost anyone can understand without much background.
Made to stick was a very enjoyable read about creating ideas that are meaningful and memorable. I see myself reading this book multiple times. Made to Stick contains many excellent examples of winning ideas and through the author’s research a pattern had emerged of 6 principles that make a sticky idea: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Story.

Tavris explains how Cognitive dissonance and Confirmation bias are at the root of people’s hesitation and unwillingness to admit mistakes to others and themselves. We go through conflicting beliefs and selectively focus on evidence supporting the easier outcome. I really enjoyed the exploration into false memories. Overall a psychology book full of substance and lessons supported by great research and narrative.

Wise lessons from many of histories greatest thinkers. Great for lovers of learning and multidisciplinary exploration. Thinking is a skill and Beveling goes on a quest to weave together learnings about attaining wisdom. The book is separating into four parts, Part One is about what influences our thinking, Part two is about the psychology of misjudgments, Part three is about the Psychics and Mathematics of misjudgment and Part four provides guidelines for better thinking. The book lacks a strong central guiding message, and the ideas are all over the place. At times it felt like I was reading a reference book, which made it difficult to read at times.

In the Start-up of You, Hoffman argues that having an entrepreneurial perspective and mindset is important now more than ever as the days of a steady career path are going away. Hoffman provides practical examples on how to network effectively and helps you understand the give first mentality. He says we should think of our careers as a start-up, something that we actively work on and invest in. I found a lot of similarities to James Altucher’s Choose Yourself. Overall, I feel the Start-up of you could of been a blog post instead of a full book, it lacked depth.

Linked talks about network theory, and its development from 1929 to 2002. Complex systems involve networks and Albert attempts to explain the nature of complex natural occurrences in the world through the lens of networks and graph theory. He talks about the history behind these fields and the mathematics and scientists involved. Albert applies some of these theories to areas like cellular biology, the world wide web, microeconomics and financial markets and more. The book is partially a personal journey of the authors learning to understand the interconnectedness of the world, and his trying to put together the pieces, but it’s a very complex area and certain parts he attempted to describe were out of his area of expertise.

An in-depth journey around the customer and business development cycle for a new product or company. I found the information to be practical and easy to grasp. I approached the principle oriented teaching style and examples that break down misinformation or bad ways about thinking about building a product. Great for entrepreneurial minded individuals that want raw advice and smart guidance.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. Despite some repetitive elements in the 50th Law, which would of made more sense if the book was much longer and needed a big recap, which it doesn’t, the book focuses heavily on conquering fear, incorporating episodes from the rapper 50 cent’s life. Some of the key themes that stood out to me were Realistic Optimism and having an Intense look at life seeing things as they are and finding a way to get through any situation, reflecting on death and mortally and using that as a motivator to do something with your life, Continue to move through the chaos and take action, and a big emphasis on self-reliance, controlling yourself and the things you can within your environment. Th 50 Law is the hustlers bible and well suited for the Choose Yourself Era we live in today.

A fun book by Scott Berkun on how to improve your public speaking. I read through this book quickly as Berkun has an engaging writing style with practical tips and anecdotes that you can understand and put to use quickly. You don’t get good at public speaking by just thinking about it, practice and awareness as two points consistently emphasised. I also enjoyed how Berkun also addressed many of the emotional barriers with public speaking.

“If you pretend to have no fears of public speaking, you deny yourself the natural energy your body is giving you. Anxiety creates a kind of energy you can use, just as excitement does.”
-Scott Berkun

Almost like a financial horror story, I learned some scary ways governments can manipulate their currencies as a weapon. Rickard’s core theme is that the world powers are moving towards a large-scale currency war, which could potentially do a lot of damage to the world economy more so than the 2008 financial collapse. Rickard’s goes over the history of past currency wars, the first leading to The Great Depression & WII, and the second leading to stagflation in the 1970s. Rickard shows many countries are devaluing their currencies to boost their exports and increase their GDP, but other countries have competitively devalued their countries to protect their local economies and exports.
The author provides some suggestions to prevent the worst from happening, and I enjoyed the depth of research and how he made the content accessible to readers who lack a strong economics background.

“Grit is that mix of passion, perseverance, and self-discipline that keeps us moving forward in spite of obstacles.”
If you want to get better at getting better, The Little Book of Talent is a good start. This was a very fun read. I felt so excited to implement a good portion of the tips from the book of talent. It’s jam packed full of wisdom and I see myself referencing this book repeatedly.

An engaging read on how to learn complex topics. Dr. Oakley’s used to struggle in math and science and say how her lack of math and technical skills limited her options to rise in the military when she made a career change, as well as exploring other careers. Dr. Oakley goes into the psychology behind focusing and breaking down a problem and showed how it helped her excel in Math and Science.

In my mind, the Dust Bowl had long since been forgotten after a gentle introduction in 6th grade, until this book. Timonthy Egan explores the huge consequences of poor farming practices in the Central Plains during the tough times of Great Depression and drought of the 1930s. With a ton of research from these historical events and many interviews, he shares the stories from all sides and those interested in the depression era stories will get vivid tales from this book.

The world has changed and although customers have gotten smarter, a large number of businesses have still not caught up with them. In smart customers, stupid companies Michael & Bruce talk about the four disruptive forces: social influence, pervasive memory, digital sensors, the physical web. These forces prevent stupid companies from being successful, but they can be leveraged to do smarter business. The book seems to be targeted towards managers or other key decision makers. Entrepreneurs can learn from this book as to not repeat the same mistakes, and non-management employees in a position to bring ideas into a company can learn opportunities to present to management. For some the book can seem like common sense and targeted towards a much older generation.

The elements of style is a guide to set your writing voice free by removing obstacles, like bad grammar, misuse of words, and guiding you with a set of fundamental rules and writing reminders to make it easier for the reader to hear you through your words. This small and opinionated book can serve as a good reference, but I don’t think it’s the solution to all your writing troubles. Digital Media has disrupted some rules in this book which gave it an outdated feel for some sections as writers are competing for reader’s attention, breaking standard rules that rely more on psychological biases than classical grammatical structure. Culture continues to evolve, new rules form and with it style.

We sure have a tendency to overcomplicate things for ourselves. I found this book painfully relevant and a necessary author and reader dialog to have. In Modern Romance, Aziz scales back from humor and tries to take the topic of dating more seriously. He partners with a Sociologist to back up some of his claims with research, but still has a narrative flow from personal experience, anecdotes, and fan-submitted questions that asked questions everyone was thinking about in the back of their mind but too afraid to ask. I didn’t find this a mind-altering book and a lot of the information was common sense, but it triggered some self-awareness and a call for personal priority reevaluation.

In Who Owns the Future, Jaron Lanier makes the controversial case that the internet has destroyed more jobs than it created and looks into why this has happened and how to go about solving it. He focuses on the impact of artists and entrepreneurs who wanted to use the internet to sell their art, music, and other information to a worldwide audience. Wealthy individuals and companies have created what he calls, “siren servers,” that have the largest amount of computing power and data and have become gatekeepers that have monopolized various segments of the web. The large amounts of data on users have become a new currency, transferring, even more, wealth to the top. The internet also introduced more efficiency innovations than empowering innovations and greatly reduced the number of people needed for labor and other tasks.
Lanier’s arguments are heavily focused on technologies impact on the creative and outside labor market and fail to acknowledge outside forces like government policy. Although Lanier, is a fan and heavy user of technology, his gloom and doom lack is tied to the rise of technology and it will continue to rise so what could we do to capitalize on the growth in more empowering ways.

The amount of wisdom packed into this small book blew my mind. I immediately knew it was making the list only halfway through. In the practicing mind, the author emphasizes the importance of process over product and results. Most of the anxiety we experience in life, and failure to finish what we start comes from this feeling that there is a point of perfection in everything we do. Early life is all about trial-and-error practice, but modern life’s technological speed, habitual multitasking, and promises of instant gratification have made us lose touch with consistent hard work and trust in the process.

By focusing on “process, not product,” you’ll learn to live in each moment, where you’ll find calmness and equanimity. Creating the practicing mind comes down to these simple rules: keep yourself process-oriented, stay in the present, make the process the goal and use the overall goal as a rudder to steer your efforts, be deliberate, have an intention about what you want to accomplish, and remain aware of that intention.

Some of the most powerful traits you can get from being more process-oriented are becoming a more patient and disciplined individual. You’ll be able to pick a goal and apply steady effort to reach it while finding love in the journey of getting there.

Sometimes our minds are anchored to thoughts of the past or pulled toward worries of the future. The Power of Now helped me to get to the next level of mindfulness in the present moment. It’s been a very influential book and has brought meditation into my life on a more consistent basis.

I felt there was some awesome life impacting gems of wisdom, hidden between random thoughts and rambles. Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, popular comic strip known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office. I was still in elementary school during the comic’s peak so I couldn’t relate to the corporate life humor. The book was an entertaining read, and I found myself laughing aloud, while reading on a plane. Some of the big ideas in the book are creating systems as opposed to goals because it inherently puts you in a state of deliberate effort and iteration over time; you did your job when you execute on the process. He talks about the concept of the “Moist Robot”, in that we come with old hardware and mind and habits are programmable. Over time, we can build habits that don’t require much willpower and we can save energy to do more. Scott had a high emphasis on skill building, as a means to increase our luck in life, similar to Cal Newport’s Craftsman Mindset. We can also be more efficient at our work, by matching the task with our mental state.

Beautiful illustrations unnecessarily constrained by oversimplified vocabulary. I enjoyed What If? much more than Thing Explainer because What If didn’t lower the bar but brought you up to it. Thing Explainer explains various inventions, biological and astronomical occurrences in simple words, limited to a vocabulary of 1,000 words. I did gain some deeper insights into everyday machinery around me, however, I felt the knowledge was too personal.

The language used to explain these concepts were too analogy focused and didn’t use the exact terms for these things which are commonly agreed upon so you won’t find much use using the analogies from this book in actual conversation. If you have a limited vocabulary and feel anxious when exposed to big words, you might enjoy the simplified approach in this book. This would be a good book for very young children, English language learners or individuals who would find more value from the illustrations than the words.

A secret mission was given to the Indianapolis crew to deliver an enclosed cargo, that item would be parts for the nuclear bomb, Little Boy that was dropped on Hiroshima. After the mission was complete the battle ship set sail and an was later ambushed and sank by a Japanese submarine. This story talks about the disaster, and the story of the survivors from that sinking. I was shocked by the vivid details and the great odds the soldiers faced. You see the guilt of the captain of the ship, the psychological breakdown and even suicide many of the crew made a choice on, but also the braver that allowed some mens lives to be spared.

Advice from a number of experts on how to generate new opportunities, cultivate your creative expertise, build valuable relationships, and take bold, new risks so that you can utilize your talents to the fullest. The book did feel like I was reading a collection of blog posts, which might have some truth to it. I did gain some good lessons from the book, but a good chunk I’ve heard before as I’m not new to the productivity space.

Incentives are one of the more powerful, yet underrated forces. An incentive is the added element without which the desired action probably would not occur. The ability to influence the behaviors of another is something that the author points out should be monitored and the ethics of incentives weighed. Governments and other institutions make heavy use of incentives to influence their citizens and society at large. Understanding incentives can help build your defense against them being used to manipulate you. The book has a very academic tone, prompting the question, what should be considered when we weigh the ethics of incentives. I felt like the book was too narrow, lacking depth for such an impactful concept.

A history of the scientific method and the contributions of Isaac Newton and other key figures of the scientific revolution. Clockwork Universe explores the world and context in which these scientists lived in and how it would shape the course of their lives and work. I found the book hard to follow and I didn’t feel invested that much in the key figures stories.

On a personal note, this was an important book for me to read. Mullainathan and Shafir show that scarcity creates a similar psychology for everyone struggling to manage with less than they need. Growing up in a single-parent household right along with poverty line, I witnessed firsthand the “Scarcity Trap”, that occurs when the brain is so thoughtfully focused on what is lacking that thinking about other things and beyond the short-term is tough. Scarcity takes up the minds capacity and leads us to focus on immediate needs while diminishing willpower and other impulse control behaviors needed to make good long-term priority decisions, which makes being poor even more of a burden to overcome one’s circumstances on a psychological level. The scarcity of time also traps busy people into making poor time making decisions. Drawing on substantial research from behavioral science, economics as well as anecdotes and stories from those trapped in Scarcity Mindset, Scarcity provides a new way of understanding why the poor stay poor and the busy stay busy. Mullainathan and Shafir also show how individuals and organizations can better manage scarcity for greater satisfaction and success.

In Defense of Food can be summarized by this simple rule: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollen argues that we should eat more like our ancestors, which refers to a time before the onslaught of modern day diseases we have today like diabetes and heart disease. Pollen states the American diet has been taken over by “edible foodlike substances,” in which he is referring to our super processed foods and other foods created in a lab. He argues that nutritional science has become too arrogant in isolating key nutritional elements and forgetting about the needed complexity, yet simplicity of a stable whole food diet. In Defense of food, has made me much more aware about the foods I eat and increasing the amount of good food I eat. I feel parts of Pollen’s arguments are too black and white, but he has made some good arguments.

The Blank Slate, by Dr. Pinker, will have you think about and question how the human identity and intelligence forms at the point of birth going through the experiences of life.
The idea of human nature or lack of has been debated throughout history and has had profound implications on laws, religion, politics, education, other societal interactions and how we view ourselves. Pinker argues that there is a form of Human Nature through genetic predisposition and that environment and society plays a slightly smaller role.

F Feelings is a blunt and direct kind of book as the title implies. It aims to knock you out of overblown wishful thinking and help you better manage expectations, accept limitations and get a better grip on the things within your control. The book had a Pop Personal Development vibe aimed at those early in their development and whose lives feel chaotic. This was a difficult book to read through as it was too formulaic and seems to be for people that have a slower reading pace and need to be guided along.The formula for the book was listing a problem, then saying F a seemingly positive duty, feeling or expected action. – Background giving a perspective counter to a positive feeling, duty or action and how much of your problems come from this area.- Tools you wish you had to solve the problem but don’t have.- Three examples of the problem.- Quick diagnosis which includes what you wish for and can’t always have, what you can actually aim for and achieve, and how to do it.- The script that you tell yourself to which leads to false beliefs and distracts you from addressing the root of the problem.- Overview of the stages of the problemRinse and repeat for every chapter. A part of me felt it was intentional to get the reader to put the book down and work on a problem, which is good. But if you don’t have problems in that area you have to be more surgical with your reading approach with this book.

A major theme was that ambitious people should create a company that doesn’t just have a small incremental improvement, but a 5x-10x+ shift that has the potential to move humanity a bit forward. Thiel made many bold statements and some other contrarian views, and I loved it. Zero to One was an audaciously brilliant book. Thiel provides valuable lessons learned from the 90’s tech bubble and crash but clarifies that the mistakes of the past are potential future realities and not necessarily a determined future. I also enjoyed the emphasis on focus on creating new value in markets with little competition that you can monopolize so you can have the space and focus on an upward growth trajectory.

This timeless book by Dale Carnegie is a story about respect and empathy. We all should take notice of the little things, showing our appreciation for others and commitment towards building a relationship. The lessons from this book are simple one’s that we sometimes forget, if made awarer, we could have many more opportunities and lasting friendships. Emotional intelligence is increasingly important in our ultra-connected world.

A goldmine of wisdom that has stood the test of time. Marcus Auerlius writes a series of personal notes to himself as reminders on how to live a good line. A man of great values and character, it was necessary to use logic and rational to solve life’s challenging problems and not be broken down by temptation. He reminds himself to be present and not to get too attached to his emotions for they can drown our his logic. It is a defensive yet empathetic book of the struggles of man and the importance of having a philosophy to guide your greatest tool, your mind to live life to it’s full potential.

Every important decision you make is influenced by an important cognitive factor many people seem to overlook, perception of time, your internal and personal time zone. In The Time Paradox, Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd draw on over thirty years of research, teaching you about the psychology of time and how you individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you.

Your time perspective reflects attitudes, beliefs, and values related to time. The six-time perspectives identified are Past-negative, Past-positive, Present-Fatalistic, Present-Hedonistic, Future, and Transcendental-Future. Once you become aware of your personal time zone, you can begin to see and manage your life more mindfully, and have a better understand of other people’s time orientation.

The book shows how different cultures, locations, economics and interactions with other individuals time zones can influence different time perspectives. A biased future time perspective serves people well in some situations but poorly in others. Only a balanced time perspective opens all paths to happiness. The Time Paradox gives you a practical plan for optimizing your blend of time perspectives so you will be able to overcome mental biases that keep you too attached to the past, too focused on immediate gratification, or unhealthily obsessed with future goals.

The world is a complex system made up of many smaller systems all interacting, and we can benefit from viewing things from a bigger picture; seeing the connections. With that knowledge, we can design better systems and adapt and influence the systems in our communities and the world as a whole. This book was an amazing read and I would recommend it to anyone. Your perspective on the world will change.

The Lights in the Tunnel imagines the future of the economy, with machines becoming more capable of doing mental activities instead of just physical labor. It aims to project out potential outcomes for where advancing technology, job automation, outsourcing and globalization mean for the economy and working class people. Martin Ford rightly argues that the pace of technological advancement is destabilizing for society and disproportionately removes middle and lower class individuals from the workforce. However, I felt his tone was too doom and gloom and I don’t think the damage is too permanent as more time passes and people are able to adapt, which I think we will.

The Unwritten Laws of Engineering felt like having a conversation with a mentor. Packed with honest and direct advice for early engineers to help guide them through working in a professional setting. A valuable book for anyone working in a technical field as well as more experienced individuals to brush up on some soft skill fundamentals.

The core message of turning adversity into strength was something that truly resonated with me as I grew up in disadvantaged circumstances. David & Goliath is a very well written book, although I can see how people can get with Gladwell’s style of writing as his books seem to rhyme with each other. Regardless, the story has many twists and tales to take hold of your attention, and the content is very relevant in a world that has become so unbalanced in regards to opportunity and resources.

I liked it, but I think it focuses too heavily on case studies and anecdotes. It makes sense that the book appealed to larger groups of people; it is well written and clear. For this topic, I preferred to have more scientific oriented content, with little case study support, not the other way around. An important focus of the book is getting a person first to understand the why behind what they do. The concept of a habit loop, the cue, reward and routine is a very useful mental model to investigate your habits.

Defensive statistical thinking delivered in a clear, short and direct manner. For a book that was first published over 60 years ago, a lot of it seemed relevant in how people can be easily misguided by numbers. A dose of healthy skepticism and awareness around statistics can help you live a smarter life and filter out bad news and information.

Clark covers many ways to savings month from cell phones to student loans, coupon websites to mortgages, investing to electric bills, and beyond. Many of the tips were very actionable, and I found myself making changes as soon as I finished reading. Since the book was published back in 2011, some tips have gotten outdated, particularly much of the technology related ones. If you decide to get this, consider E-Book.

Slide:ology is about creating a captivating presentation based on ideas, and crafted with a design mindset to help you truly connect with an audience. Duarte provides five theses for the power of a good presentation: Treat your audience as king, spread ideas and move people, help them see what you’re saying, practice design, not decoration and cultivate healthy relationships. Slide:ology is supported by numerous case studies and visuals going over the core technical aspects of a presentation like message, visual story, and delivery. The book feels like a presentation as you read it. Even though the books simplicity made it easy to take in the core concepts, I felt the book was too simple to the point of being shallow and it lacked original thought. The case studies and charts took up a lot of space, and many of the case studies were focused on Executive speakers who have a different type of audience, as opposed to well-executed presentations by mid-low level employees. There was a heavy use of quotes and references which felt like filler and the core content was lacking.

The best way to improve self-control is to see and understand why you lose control. The willpower instinct looks at willpower from scientific point of view and provides stories and experiences from his days teaching at Stanford and performing willpower experiments there. Kelly also looks at willpower from a evolutionary point of view so we can have better context, and he describes how Willpower is an evolved mental instinct that initially promoted healthy group dynamics in tribes. A good perspective on willpower, is that it is like a muscle, so it can be strengthened but it can also be exhausted. Willpower failures can often be traces back to the individual being in a low physical state, for example, sleep deprivation and low glucose levels can significantly hinder the use of will power. Willpower can be trained through the development of habits and exercising discipline, such as creating and or meeting deadlines. It was a nice overview on willpower, but I felt like I knew most of the concepts described, this will be helpful to thoughts unfamiliar with the area.

Applying lessons and learnings from the theory of the human endeavor to help you prioritize and cultivate purpose based on personal metrics that actually matter. The author leaves you with deep questions that seem, like homework, in the form of lifework. The examples were framed around business situations to help organize the problems and apply the relevant theories in personal situations and in making important life decisions. How you will measure your life, hopes you will live life with more intent, and the book had a very empathetic and pragmatic tone creating the space to think deeply about the questions. I loved the emphasis on process, character building, focusing on values and using them as your compass.

The Obstacle is the way, leans a little towards the motivational / self-help area instead of a more technical and specific approach. The book has a lot of anecdotes and references to core stoic messages that help set the narrative for getting into a mindset where the obstacle is part of the course and not something you should fear or avoid. The book is organized into three parts; part one is Perception, which helps you to change the way you think. Part two is Action, which drives you to make decisions. The final part is Will, which deals with willpower and how to strengthen it so you can act on what matters to you.

One of the few books I’ve been able to read completely through in one sitting, being on a 5-hour flight helps I guess. Even though this is a novel, Patrick paints a picture that makes you believe this is attainable today and uses the narrative to communicate his insights in what it means to be a true trusted advisor. The Getting Naked part is a reference to allowing you’re to be vulnerable to your clients for a more compassionate and partnership oriented customer service. Vulnerability will enable you to build a client relationship built on trust, integrity, honesty, humility, and transparency. The Three fears the book talks about to move closer to a deeper customer relationship are the fear of losing the business, the fear of embarrassment and the fear of feeling inferior. To get over the fear of losing business one would consult instead of sell or be more open to giving away business. To overcome the fear of embarrassment don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions and celebrate your mistakes. To overcome the fear of feeling inferior, make everything about the client and don’t be afraid to take a bullet for the client.

Often, you find research studying companies that are already successful. But how do you get a company from good to great? Collins and his team work to answer that very question. There were 11 companies which the book followed that had similar stock characteristics and who would eventually make the leap from good to great. At the core of it, the key is having the right people in the company, and having a strong level 5 leader, who is humble and focuses on the success of the company, not themselves. These leaders confront brutal facts early and deal with them directly. Discipline, Trust and Persistence were heavy keys in the book. Some down points were an overemphasis on the CEOs influence on success and little mention of the other segments and layers of leadership in a company, hindsight biases and an ever-changing business landscape where some examples may be dated.

Short book of Food Eating Principles. The kind of rules your grandma would tell ya. Food Rules is separated into three parts, What should I eat? (Eat food), What kind of food should I eat? (Mostly plants) and How should I eat? (Not too much). The book gives a rule and a short paragraph explaining it, a handy reference book that keeps it simple. Food Rules, covers the “What”, but lacks on the Why and How, which is better addressed in the authors other books “In Defense of Food”, and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”.

Brendan Moynihan talks about some of the mechanics of Behavioral Economics through revealing the lessons learned from losing a million dollars on bad commodity and stock trades. Through his lessons, he realized that people usually lose money because of psychological factors, not necessarily analytical ones. They personalize the market and their position in it, internalizing what should be external loses, confusing their risks and speculating with the herd. I liked his analysis of the stages of death in parallel to the stages of losing a ton of money as well as the psychological errors in thinking (fallacies) we have to overestimate our position and underestimate risk. The second half of the book outshines the first half which was slow to me.

In Between the World and Me, Coates write to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori, about questions regarding the nation’s history, culture, racial struggles and his experiences living in a black body in America.

Forgetting about the past and the pain that comes with it is easy, but remembering and understanding is very hard. Coates talks about ‘The Dreamers’, who have forgotten the origins of this country’s wealth and seek to preserve themselves in this countries privileges, backed by systems that have robbed and imprisoned a generation of peoples.

Throughout the rest of the book, I felt his pain and anger. I saw a man who had given up faith in beliefs of a higher faith, in a broken educational, judicial and cultural system and who saw the American Dream as a destructive illusion.
I wondered to myself, what would my father write to me? I had no father to ask this advice. Raised by a single mother, who was breaking under the pressure of the world, I could not ask these questions as she always pointed me towards asking God; there was no response. If I had read this when I was Coates, son’s age, would I have accepted his message and done the choices I have made?

Wow, what an inspirational read, in spite of all the tragedy. Dr. Frankl’s story illustrates that even when one is at their weakest point they have the opportunity and a choice to be at their strongest. Reading this book has greatly impacted my life.

The Trusted Advisor opened with a powerful point; people don’t want you to solve their problems unless they give you the right to solve them. The right to solve problems is earned by informed listening, with in turn is driven by curiosity. The traits of a trusted advisor are: Help clients think through things, They don’t substitute their judgment for the client’s, They give clients reasons, not just their conclusions, and the give clients options, increasing their understanding of those options, provide them a recommendation and let them choose. The book is very organized and goes on to go deeper into what trust means, the five stages of trust through engaging, listen, frame, vision, and commit, and how to talk to your clients.

An insightful look into how we’ve lost some core aspects of living in a tribal society, living in an individualistic western culture. The tribal way means willing to make a substantive sacrifice for your community, holding a shared burden, loyalty, selflessness, and a sense of belonging to something larger than oneself. Junger focuses on the rise in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, especially for military personnel who haven’t been exposed to frontline combat, and it’s connection to the breakdown of the tribe. I found the research presented very eye opening, and it made me rethink certain aspects of war. The lessons can be applied in leadership and other community building activities.

I should preface this book remark, by saying that some people may dislike Taleb’s style of writing and personality and become dissuaded from finishing the book. Others may be able to look beyond that and focus on the ideas. The idea behind The Black Swan is very important and one core message is that the world is governed not by the predictable and the average, but by the random, the unknowable, the unpredictable. Taleb promotes the idea of empirical skepticism, and how social scientists have failed to predict outcomes which have huge systematic failures once faced by these black swan events.

Willpower gave a well structured look behind how you can develop your willpower and reduce the things that drain your willpower. I found it much more direct and practical than the power of habit and more focused than the willpower instinct. I liked the science around how important glucose is to willpower as well as insights into how dieters set themselves up for failure. Willpower provides numerous experiments showing the effects of willpower & ego depletion, Baumeister’s term for describing people’s diminished capacity to regulate their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Relatively quick read for the value, could have been more deeper in some areas.

Nutrition is KEY to making gains in the gym. It took me far too long to realize this, but once I did I went in search of books to help unlock my potential and Nutrient Timing was one of those books that taught me a lot about how the muscles work and the underlying chemical processes that occur before, during and after workouts. Backed by the latest research on sports nutrition the authors detail how by timing your carbohydrate intake you can multiply the amount of protein your body utilizes to repair muscles, leading to faster recovering and more muscle growth. The book is well laid out with very practical advice and a ton of examples. You will learn a lot about your body and how to be smarter about nutrition.

The growth mindset is a simple yet powerful idea, understanding your capacity and opportunity to grow through consistent effort and learning. A critical concept to understand, yet I don’t think it was deep enough to require a whole book. Dweck used some anecdotes and case studies to illustrate it’s uses in business, school, relationships and parents and the theme was still repetitive. A growth mindset is contrasted with the fixed mindset, believing that your skills and knowledge are limited; you only have the tools and talents you’re born with, which is a destructive and stagnant way to look at things. Dweck tried so hard to make the concept of “mindset” her own, which made her seem like a saleswoman with all the answers, looking to describe many successes as a result of the growth mindset. Mindset is a much broader concept, not owned by one person, a mindset is a habit of thought framed by your beliefs, you can have many, Dweck describes two of them. You can still benefit from this if you’re someone who has trouble believing in their skills or grew up praised as being smart and find a lot of anxiety being surrounded by other smart people.

Deep Work is a very powerful concept and skill. It is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. This book gets bonus points for the concept, even if the book didn’t meet my expectations. For a book with Deep in the title, I hoped Cal Newport would have added some more depth to the content. Specially more focus on overcoming obstacles to deep work and making yourself mentally prepared for it. So more focus on Focus itself, Flow, Systems and Habits. I also felt that the author’s examples were too biased in favor of his arguments and needed more battle testing. I do agree about the importance of focus and work in our lives, but I’ve realized focus can be a privilege and would have liked more examples that were practical to areas outside of knowledge workers.

Hooked is well structured and made good use of visual aides. Although, having read the Power of Habit and some other Behavioral Science related books, I felt I learned very little from Hooked. I don’t feel it helped push the boundaries of produce development. It was effective in showing how existing habit principles can be used to keep users engaged, and I feel a lot of product and marketing folks can learn from it if they have little background in behavioral science. The modern day examples from popular apps provide good case studies for product people. Hooked’s version of the Habit Loop is the Hook Model, a framework that consists of a Trigger, what initiates the loop, it can be internal of external triggers. The Action, what is the simplest behavior they can take in the app. Variable Reward, how are they rewarded for this behavior. And Investment, the users investment of data and or time into the app, increasing their value or dependency on the app, leading to more loops.

When you read a book, it’s like you’re having a conversation in your mind with the author. Sometimes it can be difficult to comprehend fully what the author is trying to communicate. How to Read a Book, by Adler and Van Doren is a timeless classic on reading comprehension. This is a very practical book that systemically breaks down strategies for reading different types of books as well as approaches for getting to the author’s objective. Read this book if you want to get more quality out of the books you read.

I was HOOKED to this book. What an amazing tale of persistence and strength of the human spirit, body and mind. Keep running Louis! Unbroken recounts the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who heard the call of duty and became an airman during the second world war. One May afternoon in 1943, his Bomber crashed into the ocean with his crew, sounded by the vast Pacific Ocean with no one in side; stranded and facing starvation or sharks. They had another problem, there were in Japanese Territory, who were notorious for their brutality towards prisoners of war.

I had high hopes for this book, but going through it felt like reference material instead of something you could just sit down and read through. There are some good nuggets in the book, I found interesting. I hoped to uncover habits that these amazing creatives had that I could implement into my own, but each individual had routines that were context specific or that fit their interests not necessarily a set of universal truths that everyone could get value out of.

Steve’s was one of the core books that inspired me to invest more in habit development and make more conscious efforts in molding my lifestyle. A great read that stands out among many other self-help books. Steve Pavlina is a strong advocate of putting in hard work, having self-discipline and courage as characteristics for meaningful results. Pavlina promotes seven core principles of Truth, Love, Power, Oneness, Authority, Courage, and Intelligence to led you to success. The first part of the book explains these principles in a very concise, engaging and easy to understand way and the last half of the book talks about how to apply these principles.

An insightful read that brings you into the negotiations and relationships that are formed between American and Chinese Manufacturers. Midler sheds some light on how Chinese Manufacturers have been able to dominate the market and hold their place, as well as some of the questionable business practices that take place to keep costs low. I enjoyed the books journalists tone, which kept me engaged and informed. I’ll definitely look at my shampoo bottles’ differently thanks to this book.

It reads like a scary history novel, but it’s indeed the analysis of the financial collapse in 2008, explaining not only what went down, but the historical context of why and how the system started to crumble. Lanchester’s book taught me a lot about the technicals of the financial market that are important to understand that you just wouldn’t get through the media. I.O.U takes a look at our cultural values as a nation and participants of a global economy, the intentions of the financial market, the governments influence and response to financial shocks and why debt is so addictive.

Checklists can save lives and keep you from making big mistakes at work and in your personal life. People make mistakes and as the systems we operate in become even more complex, we will be prone to make more of them. Inundated with information we can also forget important steps, so the solution to most of these problems of complexity and ignorance is to use checklists. Gawande describes how to make a good checklist and how checklists have helped prevent plane crashes, doctors from accidentally making a mistake or forgetting something during surgery and other situations in which a simple checklist brings to mind all the important things that must get done.

A vulnerable, empathetic and powerfully revealing book by Tara Brach. She presented a painful and triumphant story at the beginning of the book about what sparked her awakening and drove her towards Radical Acceptance towards herself and others. Stories of overcoming fear, pain, insecurity and finding strength in vulnerability and openness. One of the by products of Radical Acceptance is that when we begin to free ourselves from the suffering of “something is wrong with me”, we can trust and express the fullness of who we are; personal liberation. The book was a good gentle introduction into Meditation and Zen.

History is beautiful and sad. It’s the story of humans and the civilizations we form. The Lessons of History is a survey of human history by Will and Ariel Durant, with great insights into the nature of human experience, the evolution of civilization, the culture of man. History is a messy area as those who write and summarize history sometimes inject their opinions and biases into the story. I found some parts to be very closed minded, and I was left wanting more from the book.

Willson does an analysis on urban poverty pointing to the big problems of chronic joblessness and entrapment from welfare, inadequate transportation and long commutes to find work which is spare in one’s own community, inadequate healthcare and childcare and an impoverished culture, “Culture of Poverty”, that is created from the perceptive of disconnectedness, lack of purpose from work, poor education and access to opportunities. I felt that Wilson’s analysis was very throughout, and he wasn’t afraid to address some common critiques such as the role of individual responsibility and work ethic. Wilson was a big advocate on the stance that government should do more and invest more in social programs and work training. I agree with some of these, and other’s weren’t very pragmatic or realistic with other issues to employment like technology disrupting the standard workforce.

I really wanted to love this book, but I feel like it should have stayed as a couple of blog posts. The growth of Growth hacking has been really interesting to watch from the outside, but I felt I didn’t gain that much insight for Ryan’s book and was left unsatisfied. There are many areas and types of marketing, and they don’t operate isolated from each other, but this book focused too much on Business to consumer(B2C) and didn’t give a good overview of the landscape so you could have better context into how Growth Hacking fits in or where it’s most effective.

You can still gain some value from the book into the case studies it has provided on how some of the fastest growing startups today came to be from some clever growth hacking techniques.

The only kinds of books I have trouble reading and finishing are fiction books. This was one fiction book, that was the exception and I couldn’t put it down. It was well written and the flow of the story put my emotions through a slot machine. I felt a part of the Story and cheered Hazel (the main character) on all the way through. Reading this made me ok with being more vulnerable and remembering to cherish the moments we have with those that care about us.

Managing Oneself identifies the essential questions you need to ask yourself to take charge of your career: What are my strengths? How do I perform? How do I learn? What are my values? Where do I belong? What should I contribute? Drucker writes a short book with a lot of punch. There are some great gems in this, but I also felt turned off by the deterministic and fixed mindset messages spread throughout the book. The messages in the book reflect an older form of thought at the peak of the corporate molding era. I found myself reflecting on the questions more that Peter’s details behind them.

Social Engineering is about the key weapon hackers are starting to utilize to break into security systems. It is often more difficult to try to brute force break into a system so hackers are using psychological tricks or other techniques to manipulate people into giving up confidential information or perform certain actions to gain access to larger parts of a system. The author talks about ways people and companies are hacked or taken advantage of and how to better protect yourself. Parts of the book may become outdated as it focuses on particular set of technologies or tools used in a field that continues to change and evolve. I would have actually preferred the book to have a more academic tone with a stronger psychological focus.

Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings.
Influence describes the six categories of techniques that have the potential to influence us without our conscious awareness. These are called the ‘Weapons of influence’, which are: Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity. The book’s chapters are organized around these areas and provides many examples and anecdotes with some research sprinkled in.
I’m not sure if my undergraduate marketing classes taught me everything I needed to know about influence, but I felt like I didn’t gain much new knowledge from this and more so new perspectives and some extra validation. I found parts of the book repetitive, dry and felt the examples were not strong enough. Even so, having these principles carried the book and are useful if you want to improve your understanding around marketing and sales.

As the title implies, Ponzio is taking a stance against the manipulative ways of Wall St. firms that sell bad investment services to unknowing retail investors(you). There is a misalignment in incentives when these advisors case more about the volume of trades as they make commissions on that, as opposed to the product, what you’re buying, which is where your value is stored. Ponzio writes in a very clear and engaging style; it was an easier read for me than reading the Intelligent Investor. Ponzi guides the reader through how value investing works and how to evaluate a business and purchase securities. He clears up the misconceptions behind investing and lays out some principles. The core message is that the key to making long-term gains in the stock market is tied to finding companies with a larger potential for growth that is cheaply priced. I learned a lot from the sections on analyzing the characteristics of a company’s cash flow and why it’s important to use this as a key indicator for investing. A wealth of knowledge, with good examples and easy to understand for someone new to investing.

One of the most impactful book’s I’ve read. Stoicism is the guiding philosophy of life, I never knew I was in search of. This ancient philosophy which originated out of Greece, and evangelized by the Roman’s has stood the test of time with many principles and relevant pieces of life advice.

Irvine summarizes the core Stoic lessons and techniques for attaining tranquility and living the good life in modern times. Some big lessons I learn were how to minimize anxiety and worries, how to detach myself from past failures, and focus on the things within the realm of my control, as well as how to reduce negative emotions like anger, anxiety, fear, grief, and envy.

I found the book to be a good introduction to Stoicism before diving into some of the source material from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and other Stoic Philosophers. I’ve read this book multiple times and it still has a strong impact on me and I come about with something new on each read.

I’ll gladly take Cal Newport’s kind of career advice over Peter Drucker’s any day of the week. Whereas I felt like I was positioning myself to be an optimal cog in the machine while reading Peter Drucker’s writing, reading Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You, felt so empowering and liberating. He provides a framework and mindset to figure out what works for you while giving you some straight advice on how you can add value.

Newport tears down the Passion trend, of Passion Hypothesis that the key to occupational happiness is first to figure out what you’re passionate about and then find a job that matches that passion.” Wrong, Newport says, instead he suggests in order to construct work you love, you must first build career capital by mastering rare and valuable skills, and then catch I this capital for the type of traits that define compelling traits. The passion mindset focuses on what the world can offer you, but instead we should take the craftsman mindset approach and build skills that allow us to focus on what we can contribute and offer the world.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that refers to “achieving great and lasting success through small, steady steps”.

Robert Maurer attempts to teach the mindset of success through the art of the kaizen way. A large portion of the population is resistant to big changes and after a while when it seems like big changes are needed to improve the conditions of their lives, big actions can lead towards big failures. Maurer, says the better approach is to take very small steps towards our goals. With this approach we lessen out resistance towards change and can bring on long-longer lasting and significant results over time.

The methods the book provides to act small and still get significant results in your life are: Ask small Questions, Think Small Thoughts, Take Small Actions, Solve Small Problems.

A short manifesto on overcoming the fear of starting and doing work that’s worthwhile. Simple principles with big personal impact. The terminology of a box is symobilic of a child poking a buzzer box out of pure curiosity not impeeded by fear of overthinking. In life, fear and overthinking prevent us from taking action. If the cost of booking the box is less than the cost of doing nothing, poke the box.

The Journey into Yourself is an audio version of a retreat given by Eckhart Tolle. It was nice to experience this guided meditation as it was a new experience for me to meditate this way, very calm and relaxing. I think I would have preferred to be there in person.

With Antifragile, Taleb gives us a roadmap for thriving in change and chaos. For something to be fragile, it cracks under stress and pressure. Something that isn’t fragile but robust has a higher threshold for stresses and pressure. Taleb, presents the concept of Antifragile, something that goes beyond resiliency and can improve with added stress, difficulties, and uncertainty. A familiar example of this would be the human body; it benefits from stressors to a limit. Our bones will get stronger and denser when occasional stress is applied to them. Muscle cells break down and rebuild, and our nervous system adapt to heavier amounts of weight over time.

Taleb’s states that people and institutions are either fragile, robust, or antifragile. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better. Having a better understanding of this can help us better design and approach ideas, life decisions, technology, medicine, politics, war, urban planning, finance, legal, economic and other systems to protect against fragility, prediction errors and adverse events.

I should note; the book has a very philosophical and academic tone that can make it difficult to read. The book is divided into seven parts also called books, seen as stand-alone essays that support the central idea or go deeper into other areas.

A plot similar to The Jungle Book and Tarzan, with the essence of a Tim Burton Movie and extravagant spooky characters like those Halloween movie specials the Disney Channel used to feature. And yet, The Graveyard book stood all on its own, with amazing writing and creativity from Gaiman. Not only did this book bring me into the world of Bod, short for Nobody, who was raised by the inhabitants of the graveyard, it made me feel like an adventurous kid again. Which makes sense, since the book was made for children, but can be enjoyed by all ages.

Herman’s addiction takes an alternative look at the view of addiction being more like a chronic disease, which tends to give people with addictions less burden for their situation, painting it as something not totally in their control. Herman’s takes a more scientific and academic approach finding that a segment of addicts tends to quit in their 40s more incentivized by economic and personal incentives, and less psychological ones. Addiction a disorder of choice looks at the mental and behavioral conditions that can lead someone to assess the consequences of their decisions rationally, hoping to empower a drug addict to take more control over their lives. It’s an important alternative to look, backed with data to lead to a more productive debate about a serious topic that affects a large number of people.

The Google Resume provides concrete advice on getting a job in tech and has detailed information from Gayle Laakmann McDowell, who worked at Google and held interviews for over 120 candidates and Interned for Microsoft and Apple. Reading the book, I felt more prepared, confident and informed going into my interviews. I had a high-level view of what kinds of problems I would possible encounter, and Gayle provides a 5 step framework for solving problems and also lists the must-know topics that will most likely be asked. Gayle provides a guide from start to finish to help job seekers land their dream job. The book’s content seems to be better suited for students about the enter the market or early graduates. If you have a bit of industry experience, the book will have a lot of common sense advice, so at best this will be a refresher.

Grab a seat, this captivating thriller, a debut novel Allen Eskens, will sure take you on a ride. I was glued to this story! I should note that I’m giving this bonus points from a 4 up to a 5 because of the excellent narration by Zach Villa on audible which added soo much personality and color to the story, as well as this being one of the few thrillers I’ve read so the patterns and metaphors used were new to me.

The story follows, Joe Talbert a young college student who was working his way through school, taking care of himself and soon had a lot more on his plate as the story develops. He was given a term paper assignment to write about an elderly person, and choose to write about Carl Iverson, a dying Vietnam veteran and a convicted murderer.

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I write about developing and acquiring habits, systems and tools for a disciplined approach to life-long learning and self-improvement. I curate Books, Technologies, Mental Models, Mindsets and Cognitive Biases for smarter and more self-aware living, seeing the world as it is, while bringing your visions to life. I aim to teach others how to become more antifragile and how to upgrade their decision making and intuition.